


Promise

by these_dreams_go_on



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Bellarke, Blake/Griffin Family, F/M, Gen, Linctavia - Freeform, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:47:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27883996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/these_dreams_go_on/pseuds/these_dreams_go_on
Summary: When it seems every last clan and grounder comes to Clarke to offer their hand in marriage, Bellamy decides the best way to keep her safe and free is to marry her himself.Totally platonically or so he thinks
Relationships: Bellamy Blake/Clarke Griffin, Octavia Blake/Lincoln
Comments: 4
Kudos: 83
Collections: t100fic4blm Donation Celebration





	Promise

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, 
> 
> This was written for the t100fic for BLM Donation Celebration.  
> https://t100fic-for-blm.carrd.co/
> 
> There will be three chapters.

When he’d first caught wind of it, Bellamy had honestly thought it was a joke.

  
It had been an overcast autumn day, threatening rain and he’d been asked by Kane to deliver a supply of trade goods to Trikru. Probably because he’d already been heading for the Rover when he’d heard about the mission.

  
In his defence, his sister was in Tondisi and he hadn’t seen her for a month.

  
Well, three weeks, but running into her during a hunt didn’t really count.

  
Besides, she’d asked when she was going to see him next which was practically an invitation for him to visit Tondisi.

  
And could they really turn down an invitation from Indra’s second?

  
He’d said as much to Kane until the poor man had seemed overwhelmed and asked him to go to Tondisi.

  
He might have also said _‘And tell Indra she can keep you too.'_ but Bellamy chose to ignore that.

  
Clarke is on shift in the medical bay, but it’s been a quiet night, so she walks with him to the garage to see him off,

  
“Tell them both I said hi.” she requests, looking longingly out to the gate and he’s about to suggest she jump in the rover and go with him when she yawns and stretches her arms over her head.

  
She looks exhausted.

  
“Get some rest.” he tells her, and she manages a sleepy smile, stepping back as he jumps into the driver’s seat, “Drive safe.”

* * *

  
Bellamy knows there’s protocol and diplomatic procedures that are supposed to be followed when they enter Trikru territory and arrive at the gates of Tondisi.

  
But when he kills the engine and steps into the dirt, Indra just waves her hand to allow him through the gates,

“Which one of you wants to speak on his behalf?” he hears her asking as he makes his way into the village proper.

  
When Tondisi had been rebuilt, he’d been part of the teams sent by his people to help with the effort, but that hadn’t made the village any easier to navigate. The first few times, his sister had had to come find him because he’d taken what he’d thought was the right turn and become hopelessly lost.

  
Since then he’d learnt a few tricks to find his way.

  
Well, he’d learnt one trick.

  
There was an old seamstress with a spinning wheel who’d taken a shine to both Blake siblings and when he saw her, she gave him an ancient smile and pointed him in the direction of Nyko’s healing hut.

  
Octavia and Lincoln had chosen to build their hut next to it because Nyko was their best friend and ally in Tondisi.

  
It hadn’t stopped someone from carving the Skai-kru symbol into the wood beside their door, a load bearing piece that they couldn’t remove and so deep that they couldn’t cut it out.

  
He knew it was a sore spot for his sister.

  
He’s barely even raised his hand when she pulls open the door, grinning as she leaps at him and he has to take a step back as he wraps his arms around her in a rib-cracking hug.

  
When their hunting parties had crossed paths, she’d only given him a hip check and a poke on the cheek, but now, she’s pulling him into her hut as Lincoln gets up from their table for his own hug.

  
“I brought you something.” he blurts the moment they’ve finished their greetings and he holds out the package that he’d slipped into his jacket.

  
Octavia glances at Lincoln, her smile turning into a smirk and Bellamy isn’t entirely sure why.

  
She rips at the string and the old cloth he’d wrapped around it, her brow furrowing curiously as she opened the gift and shook it out, holding it up to examine it.

  
“It’s from Shallow Valley,” he explained, slightly nervous, “They have a lot of things from the old world up there and copy a lot of the stuff…”

  
“It’s beautiful.” Octavia interrupted, touching the lilac fabric between her hands,

  
“That’s a symbol for peace,” Lincoln explained, standing behind her, “My mother was Lowoudaklironkru, they had that everywhere.”

  
He raises his head, “I didn’t know they were trading with Skai-kru.”

  
Bellamy shrugs, “They weren’t, but Clarke met their delegation and we thought you could hang it outside so…”

  
He trails off as Octavia wipes at her eyes and his heart drops, his sister rarely got emotional, but she laughs at the concern on his face,

  
“It’s fine Bell, it’s beautiful and we’ll hang it tonight.”

  
“I can get you something else?” he offers and Lincoln whispers into her ear before taking the flag from her hands and setting it on the table.

  
“That’s not…” she broke off, “We…uh…we kind of have a present for you as well.”

  
Octavia takes his hand, squeezing it gently before placing it against her stomach and it takes him a second to wonder what’s happening before his brain throws up the suggestion.

  
“You’re not?”

  
She nods, “About three months…give or take…Nyko confirmed it this morning and we’re gonna…”

  
Her words are cut off as he pulls her into a tight hug, wrapping his arms around her back and cradling her head in his hand, even though they’ve both grown so much, the span of his hand can still cover the back of her skull.

  
His little sister, pregnant.

  
He can hear her breathing against his collarbone, sniffling slightly, her fingers tangled in his shirt and he wonders how much longer they’ll be able to do this?

  
How long until the baby gets in the way?

  
_O’s_ baby.

  
He releases Octavia only to embrace Lincoln, his body a sharp contrast to his sister’s smaller, softer one,

“We’ll go to see Abby soon.” he promises, his voice soothing in Bellamy’s ear.

  
They walk him back to the rover, Bellamy’s arm wrapped around Octavia’s shoulder, entreating her to be careful, to be safe and to stop rolling her eyes at him. She’s only released when her lover hands him a familiar object.

  
Clarke and Lincoln’s main source of communication these days was a notebook they were sending back and forth filled with sketches. She sketched the Ark and space; he sketched the world he’d seen thus far.

  
The council had been worried that she was trading their secrets and had confiscated it from her but before Bellamy could even demand it back, they’d returned it, deciding that Lincoln was sending her images he’d copied from books and his own imagination.

  
Lincoln had sworn to him and Octavia both that he wasn’t but considering the alternative was a cult in Vegas that practised ritualistic human sacrifice, they chose not to believe him.

  
He insists on another hug from both of them and wouldn’t even leave if it wasn’t for the fact that he was the only one who knew how to drive the rover and Kane would be furious if he made the unarmed traders walk back to camp.

  
Indra intercepts him before he can get the driver’s side door open, catches his eye and stalks off under the assumption that he’ll follow her.

  
And because every part of her radiates power and leadership, he does.

  
She leads him to the middle of the path, and any curious onlookers only have to catch a glimpse of her eyes before they suddenly find somewhere else to be.

  
“Tell Kane I will speak to him tonight,” she demands, and he frowns,

  
“Was there something wrong with the trade?”

  
She raises her eyebrows at him making it clear that if there had been a problem, he wouldn’t be finding out about it now.

  
“There is talk about Wanheda,” she growls, “About her marriage prospects.”

  
Bellamy’s instinctive reaction to the grounders name for Clarke is lost in confusion,

  
“Marriage prospects?” he echoed in disbelief,

  
“She doesn’t have marriage prospects; she’s not even dating anyone right now.”

  
Not that he keeps an active interest in her dating life or watches her shoot down flirtatious interactions with a flutter in his stomach that he can’t quite place.

  
Indra only really tolerates him because he’s Octavia’s brother, but the look she’s giving him right now lets him know that the blood relation isn’t thick enough for her liking.

  
“There are people who want to her to have some,” Indra snaps, “There are tribes beginning to think about asking for her hand.”

  
“Left or right?” he quips and is rewarded with a murderous glare that has him wishing Octavia and Lincoln were a lot closer.

  
“I’ll pass your message onto Kane.” he promises, making his exit before Indra has him thrown out the gates.

  
And he does eventually remember to tell Kane, a few hours after he gets back, because the first thing he does when the rover comes to a stop is toss, the keys to Raven and  
break into a light jog as he goes hunting for Clarke.

  
He finds her glaring down at a chess board, sitting across from Jackson and crouches down beside her, resting his arm on her chair,

  
“I’m thinking of An Amazing Bishop Endgame,” she mutters, her hand hovering above a piece,

  
“What do you think?”

  
He has no idea what she’s talking about and the confusion on his face brings a hint of a smile to hers.

  
“I made the mistake of sitting down when I asked her to swap shifts with me,” Jackson sighs,

  
“I swear this chessboard wasn’t here when I came over.”

  
Bellamy shakes his head and shifts a little closer, so Clarke turns her attention to him giving Jackson the chance to shoot straight for the bar, nearly knocking Miller out of the way as he makes a grab for the moonshine,

  
“Octavia and Lincoln are gonna have a baby.” he tells her, trying to whisper but unable to contain his excitement. 

  
Her eyes widen, her mouth drops open and she blinks rapidly, “Oh my God! _Really?_ ”

  
He nods, sniffing as his eyes water, “Yeah…Nyko confirmed it uh…they’ll have to come see your mom…”

  
His words are cut off as Clarke takes his hand, “Breathe,” she instructs him with a smile, “This is a good thing and…Octavia’s going to be fine, between Nyko and my mom, she’ll have the best care on the planet.”

  
He manages a wet chuckle, and she meets his gaze, silently assuring him that everything would be okay until a wave of calm washes over him,

  
“You’re right,” he admits, “I was just…a baby!”

  
She grins, “I know, doesn’t seem real, does it?”

  
His knees are starting to protest so he takes the seat opposite her and the minute his backside touches the metal he realises he’s made a mistake.

  
Clarke’s hands move so quickly he can’t even track them as she rearranges the pieces on the board,

  
“I’ve never played a game in my life, Princess.” he points out with a rueful smile but she merely shrugs,

  
“I’ll teach you,”

  
She picks up a piece, “This is the knight…”

* * *

  
When the first proposal comes, Bellamy misses it entirely.

  
He hears the call go out when there’s unexpected movement in the woods and meets David Miller at the gates, ready to raise the alarm and usher everyone inside before he sees that they’re carrying a banner with the symbol of their tribe.

  
Not something grounders typically bothered with on their way to a war.

  
“Are we supposed to have a meeting today?” David asks as he turns to face him and Bellamy shakes his head,

  
“Nobody mentioned it to me.”

  
And he was in a better position than most to know, with Abby as Chancellor and Kane as her second, it was often proximity and/or Clarke’s medbay schedule that decided  
whether Bellamy was the third or fourth person to know what was happening in Arkadia.

  
In the official chain of command, he was somewhere above Octavia in Tondisi and below Gina the cute bartender but unofficially, he ranked somewhere under Clarke. 

  
And considering Clarke was the only one in Arkadia who could speak Trigedasleng and had the respect of the grounders, as much as the council wished otherwise, they couldn’t keep her out of the loop.

  
They’d tried once, it had led to a fifth of their crop yield being contaminated and destroyed because they hadn’t understood the grounders had been warning them against draining that particular waterhole.

  
Kane and Abby appear beside him and he glances up at the guard towers to make sure the men up there have steady hands before awaiting their orders.

  
“If they meant us harm, they wouldn’t be out in the open like this,” Abby comments, “If they waited until nightfall, a few arrows would take out our guards, perhaps a fire near the gates…”

  
“They’re Trishanakru,” Clarke announced, her hands on Bellamy’s back as she moved him to the side, “Farmers and sheepherders, they’re probably here to trade.”

  
She moves towards Kane and Abby the three of them getting ready to talk politics when Bellamy holds his hand over his brow to shield his eyes from the sun, squinting at the people emerging from the woods.

  
“Weapons _down!_ ” he shouts, “They have kids with them.”

  
His tone doesn’t allow for disobedience and the guards are aiming their barrels at the ground before they even stop to think about rank.

  
Clarke takes the lead welcoming the grounders, speaking slowly but carefully with her hands in front of her to show she has no weapons. While she engages in conversation Bellamy carefully makes his way around the outside of the group, checking their postures and any suspicious bulges in their clothes for hidden weaponry.

  
He doesn’t know whether to be impressed or concerned that they walked into another tribe’s territory without anything to defend themselves.

  
Kane invites them inside, speaking in English but his tone is easy enough for them to understand.

  
David Miller hesitates beside him, “Don’t traders usually bring goods?” he asks under his breath but Bellamy only shrugs, “Maybe, but our enemies don’t usually bring kids or knock on the front door.”

  
The kids in question linger outside the gate, looking up at the remnants of the Ark curiously and he wants to invite them inside but doesn’t speak enough Trigedasleng. Still, he moves to one of the barrels they have collecting rainwater and fills a cup to take over to them, making a point to sip from it himself before he extends it to the oldest.

  
He's not really sure how it descends into a game of tag but by the time he’s aware something has happened he has a girl who couldn’t be more than five on his back as he walks around the compound chatting to her even though she doesn’t understand a word.

  
He catches a flash of blonde out of the corner of his eye and makes his way over to Clarke with exaggerated steps, swaying as the child squeals in delights and loops her arms tighter around his neck. She ducks around the metal hulk towards the swamp they’d never managed to properly drain, and he feels himself frowning as he follows her to the shore where she’s standing with her arms crossed, staring down at the water.

  
“Everything okay, Princess?” he asks, and her head shoots up, her eyes widening before she notes that it’s him,

  
“Fine,” she lies smoothly, and he tilts his head, his disbelief shining through his eyes, but she doesn’t meet his gaze, choosing instead to focus on his new friend,

  
“Who is this?” she asks, and he shrugs,

  
“I didn’t catch her name,” he admits, “But she likes me well enough.”

  
The girl giggles and shouts something to Clarke causing a smirk to break out on her face as she answered back, “Care to translate?” Bellamy suggested as she finished speaking to the girl and they both burst into laughter.

  
Clarke’s laughter is contagious, and he finds himself smiling not just at the situation but at her flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes.

  
She was so intensely full of life that just watching her felt like a hot knife being pushed into his chest, painful but filling him with warmth at the same time.

  
She’s his best friend.

  
‘Anah!” a sharp voice calls and Bellamy feels the child still against him before her arms press against his neck and he starts to choke but he recognises her intentions.

  
With the habit left over from childhood, he kneels down so she can slide off his back and turns his head to watch her run towards the adult who called her, a woman with the sternest expression Bellamy had ever seen on anyone who wasn’t Indra.

  
He’s worried that the girl is in trouble and starts to push himself up, thinking to ask Clarke to translate as he explained that they were just playing a game and to apologise for having led her away from the group.

  
But when the girl reaches the woman’s side, she smiles down at her with obvious maternal love that has his mother’s face flashing before his eyes.

  
Clarke moves to stand beside him, and they hear the gates opening and the guards calling as they shut again, leaving them standing there in sudden silence as the afternoon sun glistened on the waters. 

  
“I’m guessing we didn’t make any friends today?” Bellamy prompted and she snorted,

  
“Yeah, something like that.”

  
He wets his lips nervously, “Are our people gonna be safe out in the woods?”

  
She blinked up at him, “Octavia and Lincoln will be fine,” she assures him, “Harming either of them would mean war against Trikru and their lands border Trishanakru’s.”

  
He’s not sure whether to be touched that Clarke assumed his first thought was for his little- pregnant- sister or upset that he didn’t think he was asking for Skai-kru.

  
Still, the confirmation did comfort him, so maybe it had been what he needed to hear.

* * *

  
What he didn’t need to hear however, was the true account of the meeting between their people and Trishanakru in the bar that evening.

  
Recounted loudly and colourfully by the guard who’d been in the room when the meeting between the two clans had taken place and their leader had revealed that he spoke English. He had merely been testing Clarke as he wanted to know her grasp of their language before he offered to join their clans in marriage.

 _  
Marriage_.

  
Offering himself.

  
To _Clarke_.

  
“Are you sure he didn’t mean Abby?” Someone asked managing to break through the fog that had descended in Bellamy’s head, “They looked about the same age.”

  
“Nope,” the guard smacks his lips as he slams his shot glass down, clearly relishing the attention,

  
“He asked to marry Wanheda and looked straight at her while he said it.”

  
Bellamy wants to lecture the guard- whose name he vaguely recalls might be Huxley- but he opts to stagger away from the bar, less out of drunkenness and more because his brain is still too frazzled to operate his legs properly.

  
The feeling reminds him of the many, many, _many_ times after his adrenaline had stopped pumping through his veins and his body had suddenly viciously reminded him that he hadn’t rested in far too long and right that very second was the perfect time to start.

  
Marriage.

  
The only part of his brain still functioning and not involved in physical activity was throwing up all the reasons Clarke couldn’t marry some old man from another kru.

  
She didn’t know him, she couldn’t _trust_ him, she couldn’t leave because their people needed her, she couldn’t leave because if she needed help they’d be too far away and she wouldn’t be able to contact them, if a war broke out they sure as hell wouldn’t want her somewhere behind enemy lines.

  
And what if she got pregnant?

  
He was having a hard enough time with O being an hour’s horse ride away, let alone Clarke being…

  
Where even was Trishanakru?

  
He had to find Clarke, he had to…

  
_Whack_.

  
“Ooof”

  
He had to pick himself up off the floor after colliding with someone knocked him on his ass and made him see stars.

  
“Bellamy?”

  
He raises his head at her familiar voice and sees Clarke rubbing her forehead, “Are you hurt?”

  
It took a second for his brain cells to point out that she meant physically, and he picked himself up and shook himself down to show he was fine.

  
Clarke is still blinking rapidly, and he takes the chance to catch her off guard.

  
“Heard you had a proposal today.” he began and in the dim half-light of the hallway he swears that he sees her blush.

  
Just a little.

  
She looks over his shoulder to see if there was anyone within earshot.

  
“Technically, Wanheda had a proposal,” she revealed, “Trishanakru are worried about Azgeda invasions and…”

  
“They figured having you would turn Azgeda off the idea?” he finished,

  
“All the more reason to keep you around here then.”

  
She smirked, “I would have made the same argument if I’d had time, my mom turned down the proposal so fast I didn’t even get a say.”

  
Yeah he could see that, Abby managed to purse her lips into the thinnest line imaginable when he and Clarke took their seats at the bar because ‘she was too young to be drinking’, which he was sure meant that she was too young to be traded in marriage to a complete stranger.

  
“Chin up, princess,” he jests, “You can always turn down the next one.”

  
She rolls her eyes, “There won’t be a next one.” She predicts.

  
_Wrongly._


End file.
